Hell to Pay
by The Karlminion
Summary: Kari Solo, exiled and powerless Jedi Knight, has returned. Why? Not even she knows...


**_Hell to Pay: A KotOR 2 Story  
_**_**Prologue: Floating in the Solar Wind**_

_Damage: critical… cannot self-repair…_

_Initiate distress signals… inadequate response…_

_Life support: three droids, two sentients. One is… dead? The other… critical condition, must stabilize… top priority…_

_Activation code: "T3-M4, your master needs you. Wake up…"_

Bzztght… hsss… _"Dwooooo-ree? Wooo!" (Why did you wake me up? I was asleep!)_

"_T3-M4, status report." "Tree-rwoo-deet-dee-Roooo… Gzeeeer?" (In need of maintenance, upgrade logic circuits firing out of sequence. Why haven't I been looked after lately?) "I don't know, that isn't my concern. What is my concern is this: the sentient Kreia is apparently dead, but the sentient Kari Solo is in shock, and her condition is critical. Your first priority is to stabilize her. We can't fully heal Kari here, but we can prevent her from dying._

"_The ship has been heavily damaged, and is drifting through an asteroid belt. An initial analysis indicates alarming amounts of highly volatile substances contained within nearly all of the asteroids. You must repair the ship enough so I can bring her to a nearby mining station, where we can hopefully enact full repairs. Don't try to do it all yourself; I sense another droid, 3C-FD, which you can reactivate and enlist to aid you._

"_Are your duties clear, T3?" Reee-oop." (As crystal, T3 out.)_

The droid beeped to itself for a few more seconds, then rolled out along the hall. It ran into a closed and locked door, which it unsuccessfully tried to open. It backtracked to the security station, and attempted to override the lockdown; once again, it failed.

T3 buzzed irritably to itself, looking around for something that might be useful. A nearby container revealed a few computer spikes, which it used to override the lockdown on the nearby door. It watched as the camera feed showed the door opening. Humming a triumphant-sounding tune to itself, T3 rolled out and into the main hold.

A few droids lay about, broken and useless. The security console lay nearby, but once again it couldn't get in. A body lay nearby, and it approached.

_Life support: inconclusive. Appears to be dead, but faint mental activity shows otherwise. Anomaly, not a priority; search the body._ The search turned up a key-card, which T3 knew went to one of the lockers in the cargo bay in back of the ship. The broken droids yielded little but a few parts, and a footlocker nearby couldn't be opened at all. T3 was forced to break it open by ramming into it. When the locker finally sprang open, there were but a few spikes and a pile of broken metal; T3 took all of it, knowing that the workbench in the garage could be used to turn the broken item into something useful.

It continued on to the medical bay, where its highest priority lay; Kari Solo, lying in a coma, bleeding from too many shallow cuts and covered in large, ugly-looking bruises. Not to mention several severe gashes on her head, already leaking puss.

T3 was alarmed at the sight. _Find medpacks! Now!_ Frantically, it searched the cramped room, screeching in alarm. A container contained three of them, plus an implant of some sort. It immediately turned to use the medpacks on Kari.

Kolto spray misted forth, settling on the cuts and causing them to mend. It then applied another to Kari's head; the cuts there sealed up and the puss evaporated. The droid then used one of its manipulator arms to lance the bruises, letting them drain. Then it applied the final medpack to the bruises. Finally, it took the implant and put it on Solo's head, whereupon it activated, deployed, and burrowed into her thick dirty blond hair, disappearing from view.

_Life support: critical, but stable. Solo is in no immediate danger. Attend to the ship._ T3 rolled back out into the hall and went for the cargo hold. Several objects lay scattered about; some containers, a locker, and the other droid, 3C-FD. Reactivating it was a simple matter of manipulating some of the parts from the broken droids to replace the missing pieces and mend the broken components.

_Bzzt… Greer…_ "Dwoooo-ree?" (Hello, who're you?) "Reee-wir-dwoop-eeerg." (I'm T3-M4. I need your help.) _Tzzit…_ "Dreewoop-booweee!" (Okay, I'll follow you around!) The two droids searched the rest of the bay, finding some more spikes, a security tunneler, and two blasters. T3 couldn't use them, since its upgrade logic circuits were still firing badly.

They went back to the main hold, where T3 attempted to open the doors to the garage. But apparently there was a massive breach there, so the garage was locked down. And it couldn't be overridden. Then it thought of something, and turned to 3C to reveal its plan. 3C agreed.

3C stayed at the console, manipulating the doors to the garage; close the inner door, open the outer door, and wait for T3 to get into position. Then close the outer door, open the inner door, and wait for T3 to finish his business.

T3 went immediately to the workbench, and found that it was damaged and couldn't perform its full range of functions. But it could still make repair kits, which it did, and immediately it used them on itself. It was very relieved when the misfiring circuits stopped misfiring, and its components were realigned for optimum efficiency. It began a self-diagnostic, and found that despite the repairs it still needed someone to attend to some deeper problems; it had been a long time since it had been properly looked over.

T3 rolled around the garage, noting the massive hole in the hull. It told 3C to let it back to the rest of the ship, which it did.

"_Good job, T3. However, you still need to fix the hyper drive so we can make an approach to the nearby mining colony, where hopefully we can get repairs. The door to the engine room is jammed, however. I cannot get it open. You'll have to go out on the outer hull and attempt to find some sort of a detonation device, along with more parts to fix the hyper drive. Take 3C with you, so you can search more ground faster."_

The two droids went to the lift that would take them to the outer hull. Once there, they beeped to each other for a few seconds.

"Dreewoop-eeeeroo. Droooo!" (I'll take the port side. This is fun!) "Bwooo-ree-beep! Reeeoooo." (This isn't fun, 3C-FD, this is serious! Focus on the task.)

A few minutes yielded some mines, a bunch of parts, and the sparking wires that controlled the entry to the starboard dormitories. _"You might want to go in there, T3. Who knows what you'll find?"_ "Dreeep. Roooo." (Sounds good. Will do.)

They went back into the ship, where 3C operated the doors again while T3 went through the garage and into the dormitory. A few footlockers yielded a droid flamethrower and some more parts.

It had what it needed. 3C let it back in, and they proceeded to the very rear of the ship. The door was indeed stuck, so T3 put one of the mines down near it. Then T3 and 3C rolled far back, and T3 shot the mine with the blaster it had installed.

The mine blew; shrapnel flew everywhere; the door was opened, albeit inelegantly. T3 rolled into the engine room, where it attempted to repair the hyper drive enough to restore power to the portside engine. Its attempt was successful; it felt a shudder as the engine engaged and the ship picked up a little speed, guided by luck and accurate radar.

Feeling an approximation of relief, T3 returned to the cockpit and shut itself down. 3C did the same, albeit in the cargo hold. The ship flew onward, buffeted slightly by errant waves of solar wind.

Kari Solo, deep within her coma, stirred as she felt something coming. She also felt some deep stirring within her... something that had been deeply asleep, almost dead, for a long time...


End file.
